1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to means for marking parts, products or assemblies produced industrially or made as a result of other business activity in order to verify the legality of their production and to identify such parts, products or assemblies when the occasion requires (in case of destruction of the products as they are used, etc.). The invention relates to marking parts, products or assemblies made of plastic, various hard inorganic materials such as metals, composites with metal and/or non-metal inclusions, glass ceramic, and other materials that are nontransparent for solid-state and fiber lasers.
The claimed method relates to means of products quality and/or turnover control and/or authenticity verification and/or movement supervision. Also, it relates to means of effective counteraction to unauthorized production and turnover of goods that are illegally produced. Obviated in the claimed method is the necessity of using nameplates, tags, marks and other legal production signs.
The present invention ensures the impossibility of counterfeit or substitution or other unauthorized actions in relation to the products that are marked in accordance with the proposed method.
2. Description of Related Art
Appearance of counterfeiting goods on the market required the development of means and technologies providing for unambiguous product authenticity identification. The problem of goods production accounting and movement control becomes as relevant as ever. One of the ways to solve this problem is to encode the required information and to apply it directly on the part or article surface.
Percussive, electrochemical, mechanical or color marking is used traditionally for metal article accounting and control. All these marking methods have a number of disadvantages such as negative effect for the article material, possible information loss during article exploitation or information falsification in case of the production of counterfeit goods. In addition, the prior art methods exclude the possibility of marking article by the mark (label), which can be then stably read by automation hardware, directly during the production process and thus prevent the problem of automated accounting from solving.
It should be emphasized that automated accounting is especially urgent for important manufacturing in metallurgy, engineering, power, automotive, and other industries.
As of now, bar coding has been in widespread use for automated accounting.
Bar codes help trace goods and thus allow time saving, efficiently responding to inquiries and reacting to any changes. Using bar codes makes information gathering and saving fast and precise and allows avoiding errors and simplifying goods turnover process.
Bar coding is a modern way of information input for various types of automation hardware like computers, cash registers, microprocessor controller, etc.
Typically, bar code is applied on an intermediate carrier, such as packaging, boxing, tags, documents, etc. Direct bar coding, especially in case of metal articles, is not used practically. Until recently, it has been caused by the lack of equipment for applying direct bar coding on the article material. With the development of laser marking, the real possibility to solve this problem came into being.
An ITF-type bar code developed especially for working with low printing quality seems to be most suitable due to its intrinsic enhanced reading reliability.
Apart from accounting, the article identification solves another important problem. Vendors can face baseless claims for warranty return of articles sold in fact by another vendor of similar articles. In order to prevent articles counterfeit said articles are provided with protection elements that are difficult to reproduce, or such reproduction will be prosecuted because of false marking or patent infringement.
There are several common article protection methods, such as holograms, packaging, bar code stickers, RFID technology, etc. DataDot (micro inscription) technology has been recently used for identification and counterfeit protection of the whole population of car spare parts. However, most protection technologies presume marking an intermediate carrier with more or less protected information instead of marking directly the metal surface. It decreases significantly article protection possibilities owing to the fact that protection element integrity is not guaranteed as opposed to applying the marking onto the surface of an article.
A method of marking article or product or assembly to identify same, and an identification system to identify the article or product or assembly marked according to the method are described in the Russian Federation patent 2199781. This group of inventions relates to means of marking all types of articles, products and assemblies produced industrially or made as a result of other business activities and adapted for the production legality verification. Using the inventions results in practical impossibility of counterfeiting or replacement or other illegal actions in respect of above mentioned goods. The method and system provide marking goods with data containing encoded information or digital signature applied to the goods or a label thereon or other information medium. The data may also be stored in storage device that said goods may be provided with. Authenticity verification is made by means of an identification unit adapted to transform the stored data into messages which are then checked using cryptographic algorithms, any interested user being able to review the verification result. The method of, and system for, marking product, article or assembly relate to the means aimed at product, article or assembly quality and/or turnover control and/or authenticity verification and/or movement supervision. The method and system relate also to means which are designated for effective countermeasures to be taken against unauthorized reproduction or flow of goods, articles or assemblies and which can be used for the production of nameplates, tags, marks, tickets and other legal production signs of said product, article or assembly. The group of inventions ensures that counterfeit, replacement or other unauthorized actions against product, article or assembly marked by means of the claimed method and with the use of the system implementing same are practically impossible.
A method of counterfeit protection of quantity-produced goods is disclosed in Russian Federation patent 2365990 “Product authenticity verification method”. The method consists in applying a label with an identification code on the product, said code being an alphanumeric set which is generated by a random number generator. The identification code is covered by an opaque erasable covering. The opaque covering should be erased and the product identification code should be read and transmitted by telecommunication means to a supervisory service in order to verify product authenticity after product is bought. The supervisory service compares the received product identification code with identification codes stored in a database.
The identification code is assigned an open number that corresponds to the number of identification codes package, as a part of which the identification code is stored in the supervisory service database. The open number is applied near or on the opaque erasable covering of the identification number. This open number is used by the manufacturer to activate product protection by sending (to a phone number or Internet address) the identification code number and manufacturer password via telecommunication means to the supervisory service, and by storing the protected product information in the identification code database at the supervisory service. The invention simplifies marking the protected products and increases the products counterfeit protection level.
The technical result of the invention consists in the counterfeit protection level increase and in the simplification of the identification codes generation process and marking the goods being protected against counterfeit. The simplification is achieved due to the fact that the manufacturer does not take part in the identification code generation process and therefore the claimed method is easier to use by a wide range of bona fide manufacturers.
Russian Federation patent 2216776 “Method of, and system for, labeled objects identification and accounting” refers to methods and apparatuses used for objects automated accounting and movement control in the course of business activity. The technical result of the invention lies in the increase of validity in accounting a labeled objects array. The method consists in labeling each object with a protected identification sign with an object identifier (ID) applied thereon and controlling objects movement for each business entity according to information which is registered in a database. The object ID is a multi-symbol combination randomly selected from an array of unrepeatable multi-symbol combinations. Any person has an access to the database in order to receive information by means of the object ID about the object origin and the business entity from which the object is obtained. The object of the group of inventions is to provide a system of labeled objects array accounting in the course of production, distribution and using thereof. The technical result of the first invention of the group lies in the increase of validity in accounting marked objects array. The first invention is a method of accounting objects of business activity which comprises marking each object with the protected identification sign, the object ID being applied thereon, and controlling objects movement (goods flow) for each business entity according to information which is registered in the database. The second invention in the group enhances the resources of the marked objects automated identification and accounting system. The second invention is a marked objects identification and accounting system which comprises means for generation identification signs with the ID, means for applying the signs on the objects, means for controlling movement of marked objects, the control means containing at least one point for inputting data about the objects and IDs, data input devices and information processing means containing a comparator and a decision-making device, the means for generation, applying, and controlling and devices being connected by telecommunication channels.
Russian Federation patent 2316049 “Method of labeling goods” discloses marking articles for counterfeit and copying protection. The method comprises forming a visually distinguishable graphical image of an alphanumeric picture, the image being a dotted dimples collection made by impact penetration of an instrument into the article surface. Some dotted dimples are made deeper than the others dimples in the collection. To form the graphical image of the alphanumeric picture, the impacts on the article surface are hit successively one after another by a needle of a program controlled automatic impact machine Needle impact power is set independently for each dotted dimple in order to make the depth difference between particular dotted dimples distinguishable only with optical means that have influence on human eye resolution. Thus, the method provides marking having an increased level of article protection due to the fact that the hidden marking is inaccessible for a third-party observer. Also, the method provides for the increase of validity confirmation of the article authenticity and marking productivity increase in mass production.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,423,935 “Identification marking by means of laser peening” discloses a method and apparatus for marking components by inducing a shock wave on the surface that results in an indented (strained) layer and a residual compressive stress in the surface layer. The marked component can be a metal or plastic article.
In the international application WO 2002/086052 “Surface labeled object and method thereof,” a method for labeling the durable surface of an object for its identification is described. This method includes the use of ‘pit and fall’ (i.e., holes and bumps used to record compact discs, CD-ROMs) technology to encode durable surface objects with coded messages. The coded message can be information on the owner, a history of the object, or any other information desired. The coded message would not be detectable by means of a laser scanning rather than by to the human eye.
The above mentioned patent publications disclose neither the possibility of exploitation of the article labeled with the prior art methods nor its identification in case of emergency, destruction etc.
The method disclosed in the international application WO 2002/086052 was chosen by the authors of the present invention as the prototype, as being the closest to the present invention as far as the aggregation of the essential features used is concerned. One of the aspects of the prototype is a method of marking the surface of an object for its identification. The object has a durable surface or a durable surface tag affixed to the object. For present purposes, the term “durable” means a surface whose characteristics are such that it can retain the mark applied thereto. Thus, the surface may be rigid or flexible, so long as the surface retains the mark during the use of the object. The method includes the use of “pit and fall” or “pit and land” (i.e., holes and bumps as are used to record compact discs, CD-ROMs) technology to apply a coded message onto the surface of an object. The coded message can be information on the owner, a history of the object, or any other information desired. A conventional reading laser is used to read the label (mark) on the durable surface. When reading the coded message, a laser beam having a fixed wavelength (say, 780 nm) is directed onto durable surface. The method for labeling an object for its identification comprises the steps of forming a pit and land coded message on a durable surface selected from one or more of a surface of the object or a tag which is attached to said object, overcoating the coded message with a coating, which comprises capsules formed from an encapsulant which encapsulates a biologic marker, which are labeled with an agent that emits selected detectable wavelengths of energy when exposed to infrared radiation (IR), the capsules being dispersed in a film-forming vehicle.
The prior art method does not determine the way of applying the mark on the article surface. Depending on the method the mark is applied, the properties of the surface of the article can change significantly, which can make the article impossible to use. For example, surface defects are not allowed in case of turbine blades because of possible blade destruction. In addition, the necessity of applying the coating comprising a sealant with a biological marker would negate the possibility of using the method for articles working in corrosive medium, high temperature and similar conditions of the use.